Bob Evans Corporate Headquarters

Bob Evans Headquarters

Bob Evans Corporate Headquarters, located in New Albany, Ohio, consists of 3 new buildings. The main building is a 2-story structure with a unique truss system. The main building contains a total of 77 unique joists, in 3 different configurations, with a total weight of 83 tons. The building also has over 923 squares of acoustical/regular floor deck and roof deck. The original concept for the roof system would have included steel fabricated trusses with wood decking, bearing on structural steel framing. This approach would have been too heavy and too expensive. As a result, the Corna Kokosing and Vulcraft team met to value engineer a lighter, less expensive design unique to this project. This custom roof joist system replaced the steel fabricated truss, saving the project hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost to keep the project within the budget. What makes the project interesting is that the typical roof joist system would have been structurally adequate for the calculated load. The trusses needed to have unique panel point locations because a wood planked deck was used in lieu of metal decking. The space along the center of the truss also needed to allow for expose ductwork. The project had 3 different length configurations, but required the same panel points for aesthetics. The joist that Vulcraft manufactured spanned of 60 feet with 3 foot top chord extensions on both ends. The joists were 13 feet 6 inches deep with sloped bottom chord members. The joists were designed, fabricated and shipped to the site in one piece.

The advantages of the custom joist system allowed us to bring the project within budget, while still providing the aesthetic look the architect and owner envisioned. The joist design also helped reduce the entire weight of the steel system, thus reducing the structural framing and footer sizes. The lighter joists and use of bolted X-bridging allowed for less temporary bracing, faster erection time and reduced crane size.